Natwest Fraud Department - Is There Any Way To Speed Them Up

[KTMsm]

Natwest have frozen one of my accounts due to a "fraud investigation" over £100 !

There is no fraud and I could sort it out with a 2 minute conversation but you can't talk to the fraud team

(before someone says you can, you can report a fraud but you can't talk to the investigations side)

I received an email 36hrs after this farce began to which I replied immediately but no reply from them after 3hrs so far

At this rate it'll take weeks and it's my main account with lots of activity

I've already raised a complaint and emailed the CEO

Is there any way to speed them up ?

[btdk5]

So it’s been less than 48hrs and you’ve emailed the ceo. Think her secretary will be pressing delete on that fairly quickly.

[KTMsm]

btdk5 said:

So it’s been less than 48hrs and you’ve emailed the ceo. Think her secretary will be pressing delete on that fairly quickly.

How long after your bank account is frozen do you think you should be able to speak to someone - IME with any bank issues it's been under 20 minutes

The CEO's secretary doesn't read them - they generally have a dedicated customer care team, it usually works well

[largespiced]

btdk5 said:

So it’s been less than 48hrs and you’ve emailed the ceo. Think her secretary will be pressing delete on that fairly quickly.

Why do we always criticise rather than just help or not reply!? If my bank account was locked I would be doing everything in my power to get it sorted!

[55palfers]

I think I'm with the OP.

If you can't talk to the the Fraud Team about your own frozen current account, then it's something the CEO needs to rectify.

[btdk5]

largespiced said:

btdk5 said:

So it’s been less than 48hrs and you’ve emailed the ceo. Think her secretary will be pressing delete on that fairly quickly.

Why do we always criticise rather than just help or not reply!? If my bank account was locked I would be doing everything in my power to get it sorted!

More a realisation of where you are in the food chain with a retail bank account. To think the ceo of NatWest is going to help is laughable.

It costs nothing to open multiple current and savings accounts. Things go wrong, a retail banks turnaround on most things isn’t quick. Spread your money, mitigate risk.

[KTMsm]

btdk5 said:

More a realisation of where you are in the food chain with a retail bank account. To think the ceo of NatWest is going to help is laughable.

It costs nothing to open multiple current and savings accounts. Things go wrong, a retail banks turnaround on most things isn’t quick. Spread your money, mitigate risk.

If only you could read and comprehend the reply.

[randlemarcus]

From background reading, I think the issue is that the Fraud Team legally can't talk to you and be open and honest, under the anti-money laundering legislation. They will have very inflexible processes around what they can and can't do, and their compliance teams will come down on them like a ton of bricks if they go around the process.

As the OP has done, the only protection is multiple accounts with different institutions, so that you can at least eat if it happens on one account. Ironically, though the temptation is massive to spite them by closing the frozen one, after a clearance by the fraud team, its probably the safest place

All this is assuming he hasn't been PayPalling Hamas with a rocket fund reference

[InitialDave]

Unfortunately, a nice public twitter message to them is likely to get more traction than trying to do things sensibly.

[KTMsm]

randlemarcus said:

All this is assuming he hasn't been PayPalling Hamas with a rocket fund reference

They can't buy much of a rocket for £100



I did mention that even Paypal - who are generally useless - only hold the disputed amount rather than the entire account

[randlemarcus]

InitialDave said:

Unfortunately, a nice public twitter message to them is likely to get more traction than trying to do things sensibly.

Not hugely likely. They have a PR proof "its the law, sorry" get out of jail free card, and no hesitation in using it. Even the finance press acknowledge the issue - you see lots of "new challenger banks are awful" articles complaining about this, but the body of the article is always "they have no choice to freeze if an AML trigger happens". The legacy lot just have legacy systems that trigger less often

[Mr Whippy]

So vote with your feet.

Move accounts once it’s all sorted.


I’m not sure why you can’t speak to anyone. Innocent until proven guilty.
So is it locked until proven innocent?
And how do they prove innocence without talking to you?
If they can prove innocence without you, why not prove it to themselves before locking the account?

And after all that, it’s a legit account (I assume), all tracked, addresses known, ID known, just what exactly do they think is getting laundered with a legit account and £100?


And to think everyone supposedly wants digital banking and cashless.

Edited by Mr Whippy on Wednesday 19th May 15:56

[KTMsm]

Mr Whippy said:

So vote with your feet.

Move accounts once it’s all sorted.


I’m not sure why you can’t speak to anyone. Innocent until proven guilty.
So is it locked until proven innocent?
And how do they prove innocence without talking to you?

And to think everyone supposedly wants digital banking and cashless.

I will be, it's annoying as I've been with them for 30 years but I recently started a financial ombudsman investigation over their handling of my business account so I intended to close that after a decision has been made.

Apparently "due to covid" they can't talk on the telephone

Every other department can, as I have been talking to pretty much all of them, for several hours today.

I have at least had a few emails back but the speed they are moving is glacial and the simplicity of the questions is laughable

Over £100 !



I tried the cashless thing buying a motorbike, I was waiting for 4 hours outside his house for it to clear - that's progress apparently.

[KTMsm]

btdk5 said:

More a realisation of where you are in the food chain with a retail bank account. To think the ceo of NatWest is going to help is laughable.

Just had a reply from the CEO's team

And I've just had my restriction lifted

Where's the smartass smiley ?

[tighnamara]

btdk5 said:

More a realisation of where you are in the food chain with a retail bank account. To think the ceo of NatWest is going to help is laughable.

It costs nothing to open multiple current and savings accounts. Things go wrong, a retail banks turnaround on most things isn’t quick. Spread your money, mitigate risk.

How would having various bank accounts help, it sounds as though the account is used for DD and Standing Orders, having another account wont help with paying current set up outgoings.

[Saweep]

Nat West refused a transfer from one of my accounts last week to my Mrs for her new car.

After spending 20 mins on the phone to the fraud team, after sitting in a queue for 3 hours!!, they told me that they believed I was being scammed, by my Mrs of 18 years, and they would not send the money.

I could only laugh as I had no idea what else to do.

I wired the money to another of my accounts, also with Nat west, then sent it to her from that. No problems.

As soon as banks become functional again I will be moving all 7 accounts I have with them over this.

I'm sure they won't care but it will make me feel better.

[surveyor]

KTMsm said:

btdk5 said:

More a realisation of where you are in the food chain with a retail bank account. To think the ceo of NatWest is going to help is laughable.

Just had a reply from the CEO's team

And I've just had my restriction lifted

Where's the smartass smiley ?

I'm with you OP. I've often had very good service from emailing the CEO.

One of the most surprising was an international toy manufacturer where something had gone wrong, but the product was out of stock to replace. The US CEO himself replied on a Sunday afternoon, and a replacement was found in a marketing cupboard the next day...